Resent, Reject, Regret

Deirdre tossed an implicative glance outside the kitchen.

“Believe me, I’ve seen the worst, and now nobody else’s skill could ever faze me again. Seriously, try to surprise me.”

“Heh.” Declan excitedly washed his hands and grabbed a spare knife. He made a few nicks and began to unpeel it.

“How’s this?”

Deirdre’s poor sight would not be able to help her tell, but she also thought this was the best opportunity to get Glenna and Declan talking again.

“What do you think, Glenna?”

Quietly exasperated, Glenna turned in the direction of Declan’s hand and noticed how beautiful his fingers really were. It was as if a man with good genes simply could not have anything remotely out of place in any part of their physical appearance. Glenna never fancied herself as someone who gave a dime about hands, and yet even her heart throbbed.

When she finally broke out of her trance, she realized she had been silent too long. Declan tried to dispel the awkwardness in the air with a chuckle. “I must have done a really crappy job if my panelist can’t review my handiwork.”

He made another nick.

“How about now?”

set her knife and potato down and hurried out

to himself, “Okay. I’ll take

She could not stop thinking about the conversation she had overheard. What happened? What was it that made Glenna hold that big of a grudge? She

know the two of you had made up,

so, huh?” Declan remembered how Glenna had burst into tears at that time despite himself and asked, “Say, what sort of thing would make Glenna cry,

her cry!?” Deirdre was shocked. “What sort of question is that? Did … Did you

course I didn’t!” Declan quickly replied, forcing himself out of

just thought she looked like the tough type who would never

exhaled a breath. “Glenna’s a tough cookie. I’ve never seen or heard her

were almost done. She explained that she

“Had something shady lately?”

D*mnit, I should have known!” she replied as she finished slicing the last potato. They poured oil into a

fresh, crispy potato chips was ready. Deirdre moved on to their other dishes-including Glenna’s stuffed eggplants- until, finally, the dinner was served on

been a lively chatterbox, yet today, she was uncharacteristically quiet and seemed almost too focused